Finals: Jon Bolding (Naya Company) versus Andreas Ganz (Ad Nauseum)

Meghan is one half of the Good Luck High Five podcast and an adjunct professor at Tolarian Community College. She loves Limited, likes Modern, and dips her toes into each Standard season. She's decidedly blue and is the #1 hater of Siege Rhino in the Multiverse.

Their meeting in the finals of Grand Prix Charlotte wasn't the first time Jon Bolding and Andreas Ganz battled one another. The two players have faced off twice before.

At the same Pro Tour.

In back-to-back rounds.

"You smashed me in Limited," Bolding told Ganz, "but I was able to return the favor."

Bolding took the play in Game 1, and both players kept their opening hands. Though Bolding was playing the more aggressive deck of the two, it was Ganz who made two plays on turn one, suspending a Lotus Bloom and casting a Serum Visions. Bolding made no plays until turn three, when he cast a Tireless Tracker.

"I just needed one more creature earlier for pressure," Bolding said as he shuffled up for Game 2.

"In Game 1?" Ganz replied. "Yeah, I was too slow."

Things looked like they might be off to a rough start for Bolding in Game 2 as he mulliganed to five, but on turn two he played a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, one of his deck's few ways of interacting with Ganz's combo.

Ganz made lemons back out of Bolding's lemonade, however, by casting a Pentad Prism with three charge counters on it thanks to Thalia. He didn't have a follow-up, however, and Bolding continued to press his slim advantage by adding a Tarmogoyf to the board.